The inactive extreme tip of the June 27 lava flow on Thursday remained about 550 yards from Highway 130 in the area west of the Pahoa fire and police stations, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Officials from Starwood Hotels and Resorts say they intend to convert a portion of the Sheraton Kauai Resort into timeshares as a part of a larger proposal to turn the worldwide corporation's vacation ownership arm into a separate, publicly traded company by the end of this year.

The mountain of bills that Hawaii lawmakers are tackling now looks more like a hill. More than half of the bills introduced just a month ago in the Hawaii House of Representatives have died, and lawmakers are left with 737 of the original 1,515 bills that were on the list in that chamber after pushing key proposals through legislative deadlines.

A Hawaii County councilwoman has withdrawn two bills regulating the aquarium fish trade. Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille said she'd like to wait and see what happens at the state level, West Hawaii Today reported Thursday.

The managers of Hawaii's state parks are turning to social media to counter online photos and statements encouraging people to visit a waterfall where a landslide killed eight people more than 15 years ago.

An animal rescue group is taking in stray cats near Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii island. The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Friday that the nonprofit Hui Pono Holo­ho­lona has rescued a number of cats from areas near lava in the small town of Pahoa.

Facebook is making it easier to plan for your online afterlife. The world's biggest online social network said Thursday that it will now let users pick someone who can manage their account after they die.

Nearly two dozen Hawaii Marines were treated for exposure to a fire retardant gas Thursday after an extinguishing system accidentally went off in an assault vehicle during a training exercise, but there were no serious injuries, officials said.

Even though visitor accommodations were suspended last year at the Four Seasons' Lodge at Koele, and half of the Manele Bay Hotel was closed for renovations, the island's unemployment rate dropped from 4.3 percent in December 2013 to 2.3 percent, the lowest in the state, in December 2014, according to state Department of Labor statistics.

The Hawaii County Council has voted to allow attorneys from national advocacy groups Earthjustice and the Center for Food Safety to represent it for free as it defends a new law restricting the cultivation of genetically modified organisms.

A congressional stalemate over funding for the Homeland Security Department deepened Thursday as Senate Demo­crats blocked action on the bill for a third straight day to protest Republican language on immigration.

A California man who admitted stashing meth­am­pheta­mine in a vehicle shipped to Hawaii was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in federal prison. Eric Castro's sentence is part of a plea agreement for his involvement in a drug ring that dealt 60 pounds of meth in Hawaii between 2001 and 2005.

A tug of war over control of the agriculture industry's use of pesticides and genetically modified crops is playing out in the Legislature as lawmakers consider bills that would limit counties' regulatory abilities and create pesticide buffer zones around schools.

The defense in a civil trial against the Honolulu police chief's wife started its case Wednesday by trying to cast doubt on the credibility of the uncle suing her. Wednesday's first defense witness was a Bank of Hawaii employee.

Legislative leaders from the Hawaii House of Representatives say they plan to focus on fixing infrastructure, encouraging business and increasing participation in government in the new legislative session.

As the most recent lava flow from the Kilauea Volcano showed no advancement on Wednesday, two Hawaii island legislators were preparing to propose several bills that they hope will reduce the ill effects of the so-called June 27 lava flow.

A breakout of lava heading toward Pahoa's main highway advanced 70 yards Sunday.
Hawaii County Civil Defense reported the original flow front remains stalled, while the new breakout has moved to within 700 yards of Highway 130, west of the Pahoa police and fire stations.

The lava flow from the Kilauea Volcano moved markedly closer to Pahoa's main highway on Saturday.
The new breakout had advanced downslope below an area near the original flow front, which remains stalled.

A north-side breakout of lava flowing toward Pahoa from Kilauea Volcano advanced 100 yards Friday while county officials contained two brush fires and a local business announced plans to return to Pahoa Marketplace.

The lava flow inching toward Pahoa caused two brush fires Thursday that continued to burn about 350 acres into the evening. Both fires started from the active lava flow and were burning in a northeast direction, according to Hawaii County Civil Defense.

The nonprofit raising money for President Barack Obama's future library has picked up the pace of its fundraising, with up to $4.4 million rolling in during the final months of 2014, records released Thursday show.

A lava-sparked brush fire, which covered about 300 acres, ignited at about 1 p.m. Tuesday west of Highway 130, about 1.5 miles from the Ainaloa subdivision, Hawaii County Civil Defense Director Darryl Oliveira said.

Hokule‘a, the traditional voyaging canoe from Hawaii, continues to push farther south than it's ever been — and its crews continue to explore more of their seafaring roots as they sail down the New Zealand coast.

Hawaii County Civil Defense said Friday that an assessment will be made about whether the $3.9 million Pahoa Recycling and Transfer Station, currently used by the public for lava viewing, can be reopened.

A narrow two-fingered flow of lava about 1.6 miles upslope of the Pahoa Marketplace moved 50 yards from Wednesday to Thursday. These two breakouts are active along the northern margin of the flow and are heading north-northeast, according to Hawaii County Civil Defense.

Coffee growers on Maui are bracing for a destructive beetle to eventually make its way to the island.
The coffee berry borer has been wreaking havoc on Hawaii island for years. The pest made its way to Oahu in December.

Mother Nature rattled Hawaii island with a pair of small earthquakes Monday as lava breakouts continued upslope from the stalled flow front in Puna and scores of Hawaii Electric Light Co. customers remained without power in the aftermath of an intense storm over the weekend.

The presiding judge in a Hawaii lawsuit over needles found in a Burger King sandwich is upholding a decision that ordered the retired soldier who filed the suit to pay nearly $8,500 for skipping a settlement conference.

President Barack Obama, his two-week vacation in Hawaii over, will travel to Michigan, Arizona and Tennessee this week to draw a connection between actions his administration took early in his presidency and increasingly positive economic trends in sectors such as manufacturing and housing.

Hawaii's Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force will recommend that licenses for marijuana production centers and dispensaries be offered in 2017, according to the state representative overseeing the group.

The front of the so-called June 27 lava flow from Kilauea remained stalled Thursday morning, but a breakout along the south margin of the flow remains active and advanced about 20 yards since Wednesday afternoon, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

The front of the lava flow coming from the Kilauea Volcano advanced another 10 yards Sunday.
Hawaii County Civil Defense said the front of the flow remains active but sluggish, moving 15 yards on Saturday after stalling for five days.

Hawaii County officials continued Friday to monitor breakouts of lava upslope from the Kilauea Volcano flow front that stalled Monday afternoon. The leading edge of the June 27 lava flow remained about 0.4 mile from Pahoa Marketplace.

Hawaii's Gov. David Ige has appointed five Cabinet members. Ige says all of the appointees have a leadership style that will move Hawaii forward for the benefit of the public. Some are staying on from the previous administration.

The lobby of the Hilo Nani­loa Hotel has been moved down a floor, signaling that long-awaited renovations to the 383-room building have begun. Oahu-based developer Ed Bushor said he's optimistic they will obtain a loan to pay for an estimated $12 million in improvements.

They each turned a moment of violence into a call to action. For James Brady that moment came when he was shot and wounded by a would-be presidential assassin. For Chung Eun-yong it was the killings of his two children during the Korean War.

What do two world leaders do when they find themselves on the same Hawaiian island on Christmas Eve? If you're President Barack Obama and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, you round up a few aides and make common cause on the golf course.

In a major course shift to the Hoku­le‘a's journey around the world, the canoe's escort vessel, the Hiki­ana­lia, will sail home early to Hawaii next year and be replaced by a boat capable of towing craft across vast ocean stretches, Polynesian Voyaging Society officials say.

Maui County film and tourism officials are planning to produce a safety video to be played at airports and in hotel rooms throughout the island to help educate tourists on ocean- and hiking-related dangers.

Severe arthritis in Marlina Tinoco's knees, ankle and back had forced her to take time off from work as a grocery cashier in 2012, but with only temporary disability insurance and her boyfriend's job loss, she fell behind in her rent and utility bills.

Hawaii County Civil Defense officials opened Railroad Avenue at noon Saturday to provide an alternate emergency-access route in and out of Pahoa as the Kilauea lava flow continues to advance toward the area's main highway.

Tempering his historic Cuba policy shift with a dose of realism, President Barack Obama said Friday that change might not come quickly to the communist island. He suggested Congress will keep the U.S. economic embargo in place until lawmakers can gauge the pace of progress in the "hermetically sealed society."

Driving Miss Annie
As president of Hawaii Auto Dealers Association, Aloha Kia owner Bill Van Den Hurk and his faithful companion annie are looking forward to seeing you at the 2015 First Hawaiian International Auto Show next weekend Read More »